# Read the first page of Mindgame by Anthony Horowitz Read the opening of Mindgame by Anthony Horowitz free, no signup. A true-crime writer visits an asylum to interview a serial killer. - Page: https://uncovered.ink/read/mindgame-anthony-horowitz - Genre: Mysteries - Year: 2006 - ISBN: 9781840021738 - Read it blind (cover and title hidden): https://uncovered.ink/?b=9781849436519&s=read-page - Buy: https://bookshop.org/a/125786/9781840021738 - Borrow: https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=9781840021738 ## The opening The action of the play takes place during one evening in the office of DR ALEX FARQUHAR at Fairfields, an experimental hospital for the criminally insane. The office is cosy and old-fashioned, chintzy even. It seems to belong to the sixties, perhaps to the world of Hammer Horror. A large, cluttered desk dominates the room with an old telephone and speaker-phone system to one side and a prominent alarm button to the other. Also on the desk is a Marks & Spencer bag which will be found to contain a box of tissues. Behind the desk, a picture of a distinguished-looking man who will be identified as Karel Ennis, the renowned psychotherapist and founder of the hospital. A window looks out onto fields, trees and a low wall. On the other side, a door opens onto a corridor. Another picture in the room shows a sweet-looking dog on one side. There is a mirror opposite. A second door, next to a medical screen, leads into a reception room. There are plenty of books in the room. On the top of one low shelf stands a vase of sunflowers and an empty bottle of red wine. There's a rug on the floor, a couple of armchairs, a plastic wastepaper bin and a wood-steel office chair: Incongruously, a complete human skeleton stands on a frame in one corner: All this will change... As the action continues, the scenery will play a game with the audience... parts of it changing while their attention is elsewhere. The aim is to suggest a shifting, faulty perception, a feeling that you cannot trust your eyes. I have not indicated in the text where these changes should take place....it should become evident in the direction. When the audience's attention is on one part of the stage, changes can be made on the other: the simple misdirection of any sleight-of-hand. The portrait of Ennis will slowly transform (one feature at a time?) into a portrait of a woman we will come to know as Jane Plimpton. The dog will become a hideous wolf. The mirror will become a second window, this one barred. The low wall outside the window will rise, brick by brick, until it completely obscures the view. The office furniture (telephone, lamps etc.) will become modern and utilitarian. The sunflowers will grow: Each time the two doors are opened, they will be found to lead somewhere slightly different. These changes can actually be made while the action continues. During the interval, the curtains, wallpaper and rug can all be changed: the patterns can be very similar but somehow distorted. The audience should be aware of the change but should be unable quite to define it. Sitting in the chair in front of the desk is MARK STYLER, a writer aged about fifty, casually dressed, a man with an air of self-confidence that borders on the smug. His face is pale and his haircut is a little odd... otherwise he's the archetypal 'expert", the sort we've seen wheeled onto every BBC documentary late at night. He has a worn leather case by the chair: He's been kept waiting. He looks at his watch for the twentieth time. He gets up, examines the room. The pictures. The skeleton. Looks at his watch again. A pause. He takes a tape recorder out of his case and switches it on. He moves across to the window and speaks into it. STYLER: Recording. Six fifteen, Thursday July the twenty-second. Pause. First impressions of Fairfields. Note to myself... why that name? The view from Dr Farquhar's office. ## Books with a similar feel - [Chasing the Boogeyman by Richard Chizmar](https://uncovered.ink/read/chasing-the-boogeyman-richard-chizmar.md) - [The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James](https://uncovered.ink/read/the-book-of-cold-cases-simone-st-james.md) - [All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby](https://uncovered.ink/read/all-the-sinners-bleed-s-a-cosby.md) - [The Bat by Jo Nesbo](https://uncovered.ink/read/the-bat-jo-nesbo.md) - [Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson](https://uncovered.ink/read/started-early-took-my-dog-kate-atkinson.md) - [The Trespasser by Tana French](https://uncovered.ink/read/the-trespasser-tana-french.md) --- Source: Uncovered (https://uncovered.ink). A short sample shown for reading and discovery. Rights holders can request removal at https://uncovered.ink/takedown.